Talkin' Cloud

Friday's Last Word: N-able Technologies CEO Gavin Garbutt

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:45:00 +0000

SolarWinds (SWI) is buying N-able Technologies for $120 million. N-able CEO Gavin Garbutt was a key influencer on the deal. But what consumes Garbutt's time outside of the office? Here are the answers.

Orange Business Services Expands IaaS Offering to North America, Asia

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Orange Business Services, the global IT and communications services based in France, is taking its Flexible Computing IaaS offering on the road. Specifically, the company is launching the service in North America and Asia through several cloud-ready data centers.

Barracuda Plans Cloud Data Storage Growth Through SignNow Acquisition

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Barracuda Networks is continuing the expansion of its cloud data storage initiatives. This time, the company has acquired mobile signing and document storage platform provider SignNow, which recently grew to more than 1 million users and represents more than 100,000 small businesses and half of the Fortune 500.

DMR TigerDirect Offers Microsoft Office 365 Through intY Cascade Partnership

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:36:00 +0000

Direct market reseller TigerDirect will offer cloud services including Microsoft (MSFT) Office 365 and Symantec (SYMC) .cloud through a new partnership with from cloud-based applications services provider intY Cascade.

Appcara to Drive Turnkey SME Cloud App Management Through Channel

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Appcara has announced a new appliance designed to provide "cloud app management in a box" for small and medium enterprises. The AppStack Express Appliance is meant to be a turnkey appliance enabling simple management of cloud applications that is exclusively sold through channel partners.

Skyhigh Networks Secures $20M to Expand Cloud Sales, Marketing, R&D

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Cloud visibility and control vendor Skyhigh Networks is looking to expand its sales, marketing and engineering organizations in a big way after securing $20 million in Series B financing.

SolarWinds Buys N-able: Will SWI Investors Remain Patient?

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:39:00 +0000

When SolarWinds acquired N-able for $120 million, SWI stock fell 14 percent. Investors didn't like the all-cash deal. The bigger challenge: N-able's MSP sales model doesn't work as fast as a traditional cloud sales model. Here's why SolarWinds will need to remain patient.

SAP Consumer Insight 365 Provides Market Insights into Mobile Consumers

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

SAP (SAP) is looking to provide deep insights into consumer preferences to its customers through a new cloud-based analytics service called SAP Consumer Insight 365 Mobile Service.

Help Your Customers Rethink Their Cloud-Only IT Strategy

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:53:00 +0000

It wasn’t that long ago that many companies had serious reservations about storing their data in the cloud and/or running their business applications there. These days, it seems that the pendulum is moving to the other extreme as more companies move their servers, IT platforms, IT infrastructures, and data backups to the cloud. In fact, some startups proudly wear the label, “born in the cloud,” to signify their affiliation with cloud IT solutions and services.

Talkin Cloud Blog

Amazon Web Services Gains FedRAMP Compliance for GovCloud

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Amazon Web Services has scored a big win within the federal government that could result in the ramping up of AWS cloud services deployments by U.S. federal government agencies. AWS GovCloud (U.S.) and all AWS U.S. regions have received an Agency Authority to Operate (ATO) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

LogMeIn AppGuru IDaaS Aims to Redefine IT's Role

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

LogMeIn has launched a preview of its AppGuru identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) offering that is intended to help IT professionals redefine their roles in a cloud-centric work environment by putting into place easy onboarding and offboarding of employees, as well as centralized user management.

TwinStrata Releases CloudArray 4.5 to Relieve Backup, DR Challenges

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:19:00 +0000

Cloud-integrated storage solutions provider TwinStrata announced the latest release of its CloudArray software, which aims to increase control and reduce the need for separate backup software or disaster recovery strategies.

Managed Services Deals: Pitfalls to Avoid to Win More Business

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:21:00 +0000

Having been working in the managed services space for years now, I continue to be struck by the fact that while many issues and opportunities are unprecedented, many times I also see history being repeated. This applies to both the good and the bad.

Often, service providers will repeat some preventable mistakes that can either torpedo deals before they come to fruition, or irreparably harm account relationships after the initial deal has been won. In this brief, I’ll detail some of the most pressing pre-sales pitfalls I’ve seen service providers hit.

Talkin Cloud Blog

Tech Data Adds Intermedia Hosted PBX and Cloud Server to Offerings

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Tech Data is beefing up its TDCloud portfolio with the addition of Intermedia's Hosted PBX and Cloud Server offerings. Aimed at small and medium businesses (SMBs), the cloud solutions are now available to Tech Data's solution providers.

Dell to Drive Public Cloud IaaS Through Partners

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

For the next step in its cloud strategy, Dell is looking to work with partners. The company has launched the Dell Cloud Partner Program to deliver its public cloud IaaS offering through the channel.

Spanning Cloud Turns to Channel with Reseller Program

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Spanning Cloud Apps is looking to the channel to continue its expansion. The company, which is responsible for Spanning Backup for Google Apps, has launched a channel reseller program to work with VARs and systems integrators to build its marketing and sales.

iWeb Unveils Fully Managed Cloud Hosting Service Based on OpenStack

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

IaaS provider iWeb has released a fully-managed cloud hosting service based on OpenStack. According to the company, cloud service provides guaranteed disk speed as a key element of overall system performance.

Veeam Touts 65,000 Customers, Announces Backup & Replication v7

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:21:00 +0000

Veeam Software, a company that develops backup and management software for VMware vSphere and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V environments, has released the latest version of its Veeam Backup & Replication solution to provide customers with two new main product features: built-in WAN acceleration and backup from storage snapshots, along with other additions.

Walmart Acquires Cloud Startups OneOps and Tasty Labs

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

The Silicon Valley technology subisidary of Walmart, @WalmartLabs, has acquired two cloud computing startups to further boost its capabilities.

Google Compute Engine Takes on AWS with General Availability

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Amidst the launch of Google Play Music All Access, Google Play Game Services, updates to Google Maps and a variety of other consumer-driven product announcements, the news about the general availability of Google Compute Engine seems to be getting lost. Or maybe nobody is simply not surprised, as this is something the industry has been expecting for some time.

Friday's Last Word: Integral Networks CEO Bryan Badger

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:47:00 +0000

Note: Friday's Last Word is open to cloud-centric CEOs who want to pull back the curtains a bit on their lives. Click on each photo and check out the caption further above-right. To raise your hand and potentially be featured in Friday's Last Word, send email to Talkin' Cloud Associate Editor CJ Arlotta, cj.arlotta@penton.com.

Webcast Today: Cloud Backup Revenue Tips for MSPs from Intronis CEO

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:53:00 +0000

Intronis CEO Rick Faulk and VP of Channel Development Neal Bradbury will show MSPs (managed services providers) how to generate double-digit revenue growth from cloud backup and disaster recovery (BDR). Join us for the webcast at 2pm ET/11am PT today.

Google Apps Scores Over Microsoft Office 365 with NARA, CBC Wins

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Google has scored two more government wins over Microsoft. The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) has completed its migration of 4,500 employees over to Google Apps for Government.

Rackspace Makes Investment in Cloudant for NoSQL DBaaS

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Rackspace is the latest company to make an investment NoSQL database-as-a-service (DBaaS) provider Cloudant. The Rackspace investment of an undisclosed sum follows three months after Samsung Ventures made a similar strategic investment in the company.

GigaSpaces' New Cloudify Player Designed for OpenStack

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:39:00 +0000

GigaSpaces has launched its Cloudify Player testing and development service on its own Cloudify platform, as well as on HP Cloud Services. The service was designed to support OpenStack-based clouds.

Google I/O: How Will Google Take On Competitors?

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:12:00 +0000

Google may well finally announce the general availability of Google Compute Engine, a cloud platform aimed at taking on Amazon Web Services the company announced a year ago at the last Google I/O conference. A year later, Google Compute Engine still hasn't been given the general availability okay, but there are rumors surfacing that I/O 2013 could be the big unveiling.

EMC Brings 'Proven Solution' for Virtual Private Cloud to SAP

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:59:00 +0000

EMC (NYSE: EMC) is offering two EMC Proven Solutions (technologies, services and instructions) to help organizations shift SAP workloads to virtual private cloud infrastructures and to protect them through disaster recovery for SAP on private clouds.

Cloud-Based Analytics Market to Top $16.52B by 2018

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Analytics are top of mind these days, and they have become a priority for both IT and business professionals. As data continues to proliferate and fill the world's storage, whether on-premise or cloud, businesses need a way to track and analyze that data. Increasingly, they're looking to cloud-based offerings to help solve the problem. And the market for cloud-based business analytics is booming.

Desktone Desktop Virtualization Appliance Enables Public, Private Cloud Flexibility

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Desktone is taking its cloud-hosted desktop platform to the on-premise world with a cloud-managed virtual desktop appliance capable of hosting up to 100 clients. The company aims to enable cloud services providers to give end-customers the flexibility of both cloud and on-premise IT solutions.

Box Acquires Crocodoc to Add HTML5 Document Viewing to Web, Mobile Apps

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:50:00 +0000

Box will soon be adding Crocodoc's HTML5 document rendering and viewing capabilities to its own cloud offerings. Box has acquired Crocodoc and plans to "deeply integrate" Crocodoc's technology into Box offerings, but at the same time, Box plans to continue offering Crocodoc as a core standalone platform to provide HTML5 document viewing to third-party applications on the web and on mobile devices.